Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 10/6: Lake Street Dive, “Making Do”
Don’t look now, but while we’re worried about COVID-19 and the future of democracy in the U.S., a more insidious threat to humanity just keeps rolling along. Climate change, the issue on which Republicans first took their science denial out for a spin, remains the greatest long-range problem our political culture refuses to deal with. […]
Song of the Day 10/5: Cab Calloway, “St. James Infirmary Blues”
Donald Trump is making lots of noises about leaving the hospital, doctors’ recommendations be damned. Once upon a time they put people like that in what was known as a “lock hospital” — one where patients were put in restraints. Originally used for lepers, by the mid-18th century the term referred to facilities that treated […]
Song of the Day 10/4: Warren Zevon, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
Odds are that Trump will recover from his bought of COVID, simply because most people who catch it, even those in high-risk categories, survive. But he is both old and obese, and reportedly got really scared when his temperature spiked (no surprise; high fever can cause delirium, so who knows what happens to someone who’s […]
Ghoul Pool
It’s time to start a Ghoul Pool for the GOP ‘Ronapalooza. Who will be the first of the infected to die? Make your choice in the poll at the right, leave your comment below, and pop some popcorn for the COVID 500!
Song of the Day 10/3: Foreigner, “Urgent”
The new White House theme song. Foreigner was among the most successful rock groups of its era, scoring 16 Top 40 hits between 1977 and 1988; nine of them reached the top 5. “Urgent” was the first single from the band’s 1981 LP “4,” which sold more than 6 million copies, while the single reached […]
Song of the Day 10/2: Tom Lehrer, “I Got It From Agnes”
For a hoax, this coronavirus sure gets around. This is how. Satirist Tom Lehrer, a child prodigy who graduated from Harvard at age 18, tickled the intellectual crowd with his ditties throughout the 1950s and early ’60s before retiring from public performances so he could concentrate on his academic career; he taught both mathematics and […]
Song of the Day 10/1: Mac Davis, “It’s Hard to Be Humble”
Mac Davis, who parlayed his songwriting and amiable personality into a recording career and his own TV variety show, died Tuesday at age 78. His best composition is probably “In the Ghetto,” one of several Davis songs that became hits for Elvis Presley, but he had a string of hits himself in the 1970s with […]
DL is Down – Provisional Open Thread
The site is broken.
We are looking into it. It is probably my fault (jason330). If the site was a car, it would be a car I got in 10 years ago, drove everyday and never checked the oil. I hope it can be saved because there is great reporting from El Som, Alby and others locked in the archives.
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– Trump has Covid. Not shocked. God (or whatever) will not be mocked.
Song of the Day 9/30: Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”
I didn’t watch the debate — masochism has its limits — but a few clips made it pretty clear that the mothafucka was cranked to the gills. Word is he snorts crushed Adderall, exactly the kind of prescription amphetamine I’d expect a wuss like Trump to do, though unlike people who actually studied in college, […]
Song of the Day 9/29: The Lemonheads, “It’s a Shame About Ray”
Somebody in the comments used this line the other day in reference to one-term state Rep. Ray Seigfried, who lost his primary earlier this month. It applies whether you’re pro- or anti-Seigfried — it’s either a shame he lost, or it’s a shame he was so graceless in defeat. The Lemonheads are one of the […]
Song of the Day 9/28: Sinéad O’Connor, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”
When Sinéad O’Connor ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II at the end of a Saturday Night Live performance in 1992, she was trying to make the world aware of the moral rot at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. She failed, and in the process destroyed what, until that moment, was […]
Song of the Day 9/27: Kurt Vile and John Prine, “How Lucky”
Philly native Kurt Vile has a new EP out, highlighted by this duet with one of his musical heroes, John Prine. They recorded it last year when Vile was in a Nashville studio. In a statement released with the song, Vile said, “The truth is John was my hero for a long time when he […]
Song of the Day 9/25: Patti Smith, “People Have the Power”
I’m looking to dispel the air of doomed gloom that pervades progressive spaces these days, so here’s an anthem by Patti Smith and Fred “Sonic” Smith from her 1988 LP “Dream of Life.” The tune has special resonance today, because U2 covered it on their 2015-16 tour — and at their Paris concert, they invited […]
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